Why did the US Treasury Dept wait so long to claim those bonds are faked, based NOT on examination of the bonds, but on the reason that no such large face value bonds were ever issued? They should have immediately made that declaration when the news story first broke out and then their statement would be credible.

I have a feeling that they're quite real. Treasury is stating this because the implications of such bonds being offloaded on the black market terrifies them.

U.S. Says Treasury Bonds Seized in Italy Are Fakes
By Vincent Del Giudice

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. government bonds found in the false bottom of a suitcase carried by two Japanese travelers attempting to cross into Switzerland are fake, a Treasury spokesman said.

“They’re clearly fakes,” said Stephen Meyerhardt, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt in Washington. “That’s beyond the fact that the face value is far beyond what’s out there.”

Italy’s financial police last week said they asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to authenticate the seized bonds, with a face value of more than $134 billion. Colonel Rodolfo Mecarelli of the Guardia di Finanza in Como, Italy, said the securities, seized in Chiasso, Italy, were probably forgeries.

Meyerhardt said Treasury records show an estimated $105.4 billion in bearer bonds have yet to be surrendered. Most matured more than five years ago, he said. The Treasury stopped issuing bearer bonds in 1982, Meyerhardt said.............

Why did the US Treasury Dept wait so long to claim those bonds are faked, based NOT on examination of the bonds, but on the reason that no such large face value bonds were ever issued? They should have immediately made that declaration when the news story first broke out and then their statement would be credible.

I have a feeling that they're quite real. Treasury is stating this because the implications of such bonds being offloaded on the black market terrifies them.

U.S. Says Treasury Bonds Seized in Italy Are Fakes
By Vincent Del Giudice

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. government bonds found in the false bottom of a suitcase carried by two Japanese travelers attempting to cross into Switzerland are fake, a Treasury spokesman said.

“They’re clearly fakes,” said Stephen Meyerhardt, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt in Washington. “That’s beyond the fact that the face value is far beyond what’s out there.”

Italy’s financial police last week said they asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to authenticate the seized bonds, with a face value of more than $134 billion. Colonel Rodolfo Mecarelli of the Guardia di Finanza in Como, Italy, said the securities, seized in Chiasso, Italy, were probably forgeries.

Meyerhardt said Treasury records show an estimated $105.4 billion in bearer bonds have yet to be surrendered. Most matured more than five years ago, he said. The Treasury stopped issuing bearer bonds in 1982, Meyerhardt said.............

Another possibility is that China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt, has decided to refocus its portfolio by leaning more heavily on shorter-term maturities...

Think about that for a second, and now these guys are caught in Italy with "Fake T-Bonds", Bull crap. Those bonds like you claim are real, and I"m willing to bet China is putting them on the black market.

Add in the fact that Russia has challenged the dollar as a reserve currency...it's not looking good at all.

The fact that the two people caught with these bonds are Japs doesn't look good at all either.

Either Japan is trying to secretly sell off their U.S T-Bonds, or these Japs bought this from China and they were caught trying to move it.

Check this out YOU are going to LOVE this, this guy lays down the facts about what me and you are in agreement on, those T-bonds are possibly real.

A reporter is sent to Italy to learn more about the bond smuggling story. But nobody knows where the two men are.

At least the Japanese press is sitll interested in story of the two Japanese men caugh withs ome $134.5 billion in (presumably fake) US bearer bonds.

We can't read Japanese, and Google Translate isn't particularly helpful, but a reader informs us that the gist of this story is that a newspaper sent a reporter to Como, Italy and found that the men had been released, with their whereabouts unknown.

Now, the easiest, most-benign explanation for this whole thing is that it's just a counterfeiting scheme. Fine, but then why do you let them go without tracking their whereabouts.